Red Green Moons Beneath the Foreign Sky
by MAGNUM777
Summary: Person of mass destruction summons a god of death, nuff said.
1. Chapter 1: Death Meets Destruction

Chapter 1:

Death meets Destruction

A/N: revised as of 5/16/13

* * *

"So, I'm your familiar?" Tohno Shiki asked the strawberry blonde girl in front of him. Just over an hour ago, he had been fighting to the death against the Night of Wallachia, a Dead Apostle Ancestor. He had bid his friend, Sion, farewell, not even twenty minutes ago. But now, now he was in another world, another universe, talking to a midget about familiar contracting.

"That's right, a familiar, the eyes, ears, and shield of a mage like myself," she said proudly, "A familiar will stand by its master no matter what and obey every order. There's a reason why humans are never summoned as familiars, they have too strong a will of their own to be controlled like a mystic beast."

Her tone suddenly became angry and bitter, "But here I am with you. A human. Kirche summoned a salamander, Tabitha summoned a dragon of all things. And what do I have? What can you do?"

"I kill things."

"What?"

"It's what I do," Shiki replied, "I can see the death of all things. Humans, animals, even rocks and trees. Everything that exists has a death. What I can do is bring forth that death."

"Here, let me show you," Shiki pulled over a stool and took a quick peak over the top of his glasses, stabbing the point of death of the chair with a letter opener he found on her desk, causing it to fall apart into six pieces.

"What was that? What did you just do?"

"I just killed your chair."

"You can't kill a chair! A chair is an object, a hunk of wood! Not a living thing!"

"All things have a death, Louise, a chair is no exception," well, that wasn't too accurate. There were things that had no concept of death but, as far as explanations went, it was easier just to go with 'everything has a death' rather than go into the nuances of the concept of death.

"You... can see death itself?" The look on her face was a mixture of hope and confusion. A glimmer of happiness in the possibility that she may have summoned the most powerful familiar of them all. But Shiki could not let her believe that. As wonderful as it might have seemed, everything had its price.

"What I see from my eyes, Louise... what I see..." He thought back to his clash with Roa, what the difference in seeing 'life' and 'death' were, "If you could see death, you wouldn't be able to maintain your sanity... If you could see death, you wouldn't even be able to stand. Being able to see death means you are forced to see the world's fragility and uncertainty. The ground appears not to exist, and even the sky itself seems like it could fall. Louise, this is what it means to see death. Anything can die, and I can see how it dies."

Louise was quiet for a while, pondering what Shiki meant, considering the implications of such a power, before asking, "Then how are you sane?"

"These glasses," he tapped the frames, "Were given to me by a powerful magician. They are near indestructible and have no concept of death. They can block my eyes, they can block the sight of death. They've kept me sane all these years. They've kept me from seeing death."

"So... what does that mean for me, as your master?"

"It means that, not only do you have a useless human of a familiar, you have one who is slowly dying and/or going insane. I won't live to see my twenties Louise. That's why I need to go home. There are people waiting for me back there, things I need to do, daily lives I need to protect. So if there's any way to send me back home, do it now."

"I already told you... I can't. I don't even know how I brought you here, I can't even cast the simplest of spells. If not even the teachers know how to send you back, how do you expect me, the Zero, to do anything?" she was on the verge of tears now, all the rage and physical violence he had seen earlier was gone. All that was left was a frail, young girl. Shiki sighed, and put a hand on her head.

"Well..." he smiled at her and she looked up to meet his eyes,, "I guess there isn't much we can do about it then, eh? Might as well just stay here and do what we can, maybe something will pop up soon. My time might be limited but it's not _that_ limited."

* * *

Twenty minutes ago, Shiki had fallen into a portal. He turned right into it as he bid Sion farewell and was sucked into its bluely depths. It was an unsettling feeling, like someone was churning his insides with a jackhammer.

The world he had landed in felt... off... to him. If he had been summoned here a year ago, his _other_ self might have gone nuts and decided to kill everyone. But during that year, he had trained extensively, regaining the lost Nanaya techniques sealed away in his memory with the help of Sougen Jinan and Ciel.

The two moons were probably the first thing he noticed wrong about the world, then the Hogwarts-esque look of all the things around him. A gaggle of laughing and giggling students speaking a language he was unfamiliar with and the strawberry-blonde haired girl who kissed him solidly cemented the idea that he was in another world. Though, the moment he was kissed, a sharp pain shot through his left hand and he could understand the language. Not that it mattered as he was promptly knocked out by a close range explosion and then later woke up in Louise's room.

They made 'introductions', mostly her calling him a commoner and the like while he tried getting through her stubborn mind that other worlds did, in fact, exist, and that he was, inf act, from one of them. Though with no success as she continued to insist that such a thing was impossible.

So here they were again, Shiki was picking up the pieces of chair that had left while Louise lay in bed, thinking about just what kind of familiar she had. She thought she was scared of him, especially his power, though there was a beating in her heart, and a memory of his large, warm hand on her head that pushed at the edge of her mind.

"So, do I get a room or am I sharing a bed?" Shiki finally asked.

"You sleep-" she cut herself off. She was going to make him sleep in the haystack by her bed but was it really a good idea to piss off a man who could kill _anything_? "Go to the infirmary for now, I'll see about getting you a cot later."

Shiki obliged and left the room.

* * *

A/N: Welp, after three years, I'm scrapping and revising everything. Probably will have something every day or so for a while until I no longer have any idea what I'm doing and then you can wait another three years. Ignore subsequent chapters for now.


	2. Chapter 2: Louise the Zero

Chapter 2:

Louise the Zero

A/N: Revised, as of 5/18/13

* * *

"Oh dear Louise, where _is_ that familiar of yours?" The, in her opinion, mocking laughter of Kirche came from her door.

"Don't you Germanians know how to knock?" Louise growled at her, pulling her socks onto her feet.

"And now you're just dodging the question, did he run away from you? I guess a mere commoner like him lacks the kind of loyalty to his master that my Flame has," A rather large, red lizard walked in from beneath Kirche's legs.

"That's nice," she bitterly responded, not in the mood to deal with Kirche's bragging and showiness.

"Isn't it? A flame this vivid, it could only have come from the Fire Dragon Mountains! It's truly a priceless creature! It matches my affinity to fire perfectly! So Louise, where is this dear familiar of yours? I am beginning to think he ran away from you."

"He's sleeping in the infirmary, told him to go there last night because there's only one bed in here," she responded, though she was beginning to wonder if he ended up running away last night.

"Oh? Knowing you, I would have thought you would make him sleep in a haystack. Is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière showing consideration to a commoner?"

Louise's face turned red, whether in embarrassment or anger she did not know, and she marches past Kirche.

A few minutes later, the two girls and lizard were in the infirmary. They stepped in to see the school nurse muttering about having to look after loose brats and went to the lone occupied bed in the corner.

The expression on Louise's face twisted a big, seeing her familiar's own unsightly, sleeping face. Why could she have not gotten a more elegant familiar? Like a dragon? Obviously she lacked any of the affinity for one but even a frog like Montmorency or a rat like the headmaster would have been better.

But would it really? A familiar was a reflection of a mage's true power. If that were true, what kind of monstrous power did she have to be able to summon a boy who could bring forth death itself? The moment of elation she felt within herself for perhaps summoning the most powerful familiar of them all was quickly wiped away by the fear that her own power might not be something that she would be able to handle.

Of course, breakfast was about to begin and she could not afford to waste anymore time dawdling on that. Thinking about her true power could wait until after she figured out whether or not she even had any.

She prodded him in the face with her pointer finger.

No response

She pushed him a bit, calling his name out.

Still no response.

Kirche snapped her fingers and Flame leaped onto Shiki, licking him on the face with a warm flame tongue.

"H-Hisui, what are you doing?" He mumbled to himself, slowly opening up his eyes and soming face to face with a flaming lizard. "A#SF34$2D!" he shouted, falling off the infirmary bend and onto the floor.

"What is that thing!?" it reminded him a bit of a komodo dragon. A shorter, redder, more froglike komodo dragon that was apparently breathing fire.

"Thing?" Kirche asked, personally insulted, "Flame is no thing, he is a salamander. And not just any-"

"Yes yes, I heard you the first time," Louise cut in.

"I guess it wasn't a dream after all," Shiki sighed, pulling himself up and straightening out his clothes, "Haha,"

"You seem awfully composed about this," Louise prodded.

"Well, it's not like I can really do anything about it. Deal with what you've got, cherish every moment you have," he gave another uneasy laugh.

_Deal with what you've got_. What did Louise have? A family name and this... deathbringer... as a familiar. Deal with it huh?

"So who are you anyways?" Kirche asked, "Some commoner that Louise hired in from the village?"

"Commoner? Village?" Shiki asked, "Ah, I never did introduce myself, did I? I am Tohno Shiki, 17 years old. Some might describe me as... a stubborn meddler of sorts."

Tohno Shiki, so that was his name. Louise never did end up asking for it but a name like that was so strange, so foreign, that the possibility of his coming from another world became that much more plausible.

"And who might you be?" he asked. He already knew Louise from last night but he did see the redhead yesterday right after the summoning. He would not forget a pair of breasts like that. The only person he had ever met with a comparably sized bust was his sister's friend, Hanei.

"I'm glad you asked," she declared, proudly thrusting out her ample bosom, "I am Kirche the Ardent! The ardent of gently smoldering passion. I have boys falling for me everywhere I go, unlike a certain Zero."

Shiki laughed uneasily again. A fire mage, a _smoking hot_ fire mage, mind the pun. Her epithet made sense, and from what Louise confessed to him last night, he knew why she was called the Zero. The look on her face only confirmed to him that she disliked the name.

"You have such beautiful eyes, you know?" Kirche's face was really close to his now, "Such a deep shade of blue, like perfect sapphires."

"Thanks...?" he replied tentatively, receiving a sharp kick to the shin from Louise who seemed miffed by the amount of attention he was receiving. He almost did not notice Kirche reaching for his glasses but caught her hand just in time, "These glasses are rather important to me. I'd appreciate it if you did not touch them."

The expression on Louise's face turned sad again, maybe he had said too much last night, about the nature of his abilities and the amount of time he had left.

"Such strong arms too," she continued, grasping his bicep with her hand, "Wonderfully subtle muscles." She seductively ran her finger down his abdominal muscles, "Commoner or not, Louise certainly found a fine specimen of a man." She looked up into his eyes, getting closer and closer.

"I want you," she said.

"What?"

"Why don't you leave this little Zero and come with me? I'll show you how a real women can treat you," This was starting to get dangerous. Louise's face was beet red with anger by now and Shiki ran through any number of possible things to do in this situation.

"I'm sorry but I'll have to decline," he pushed her away slowly, "A familiar's first duty is to his master, right?"

"Oh? I love it when a man plays hard to get," She pushed closer, pressing her breasts against his chest.

"I'm sorry but-" he gently pushed her away from him again, feeling something soft under his left hand and then realized that he was gripping her right breast.

"How daring~"

"You dog!" Louise finally said something, not about to let her familiar get so intimate with her polar opposite, "EXPLOSION!"

The entire room shook as a shockwave permeated from her wand, tossing Shiki across the infirmary. The nurse was at the edge of the blast range and cried out as her papers were tossed everywhere and Kirche managed to shield herself just in time. The windows were blown out but everyone was relatively unhurt. At least Shiki know where the explosion that knocked him out yesterday came from.

_I thought she couldn't cast any spells,_ Shiki thought to himself, _But that was a pretty solid explosion._

Breakfast for Shiki was with the servants. Louise forbid him to come into the dining hall with them as it was for nobles only and Shiki was just a commoner. Not that he minded, he was a simple guy with simple needs. Food, sleep, and work was all he needed to survive. The first two he was able to get relatively easily but for now he was just idling around. Louise said to meet up with her later, as her familiar, he was allowed to attend classes with her, so he supposed that was better than just doing nothing.

As there were no more open seats, Shiki sat on the steps of the lecture hall, between Louise and Kirche. There were quite a few people staring at him and, not knowing what else to do, he just smiled at them. Most of them laughed or looked away awkwardly while a few of the girls blushed a bit before turning away and glancing at him from the corners of their eyes. The Tohno gland at work.

A large numbers of familiars were in the room, and for the ones Shiki did not recognize from Kohaku and Arihiko's games, he bugged Louise about. She was diligently studying from a book with words he could not even begin to read but he stopped bugging her so that she would not be as irritated.

Kirche was surrounded by her usual gaggle of male lovers, something Shiki found rather amusing. All the beautiful women he knew were ruthless and frighteningly dangerous. Not the sort of vivacious, sultry type of person Kirche was and therefore not the type to be having their own personal male harem.

On the other side, Louise was being harassed and heckled by her classmates. They accused her of grabbing him off the street and faking his summoning. While the first part of that was entirely true, the second part was not. She was arguing back but it was clear that she was always bullied, always enduring. As a familiar, was it not his duty to support and look after his master?

"Alright you guys, settle down, he pulled the heavyset boy, Malicorn was his name, away from Louise who looked like she was about to get her tiny hands around his flabby neck.

"How dare you touch me, commoner," Malicorne said with indignation, "I am a noble, I am well within my right to use my magic to-"

"To what?" Shiki asked, glaring him right in the eyes. His own eyes were widened, showing the white above and below his cornea. Crazy eyes. "Hurt me? Try it if you can. I'll snap that arm of yours as easily as I'll snap your wand before you can even begin to think about a spell to cast."

Malicorne quietly sunk back into his seat, a look of real fear in his eyes. Louise quieted down as well, saying to Shiki, "I'm not going to thank you for that. I could have handled it myself."

"Just because you can does not mean you should," Shiki replied, he was starting to see why she was so aggressive and stubborn, "Don't be so prideful that you try to take on everything yourself. Especially if someone is offering you a hand."

Louise did not have time to reply as the teacher walked in and introduced herself. Chevreuse of the Red Clay she called herself. A triangle mage, not that Shiki knew what that meant.

"Well, everyone, it seems that the Springtime Familiar Summoning was a great success. I, Chevreuse, always enjoy seeing the new familiars that are summoned each spring," She looked straight at Shiki, "My, ère, that's quite an... unusual familiar."

A storm of laughter erupted and Louise sunk into her chair, trying to hide her embarrassment. For the rest of class, she distracted herself from the smirks and snickers by explaining to Shiki the concepts he did not understand. The magic system of the world, the classification of mage powers. That Chevreuse was a triangle mage because she could stack three elements and it was perfectly fine to stack the same element multiple times. Near the end of class, she was in a much better mood.

The teacher turned some clay into brass and called for a volunteer.

"Ms. Vallière, please try to change these pebbles here into a metal of your choice."

The class paled and Shiki saw what was coming.

"I think it would be better if you didn't let her..."

The class nodded in agreement with Kirche's statement.

"And why is that?"

"It's dangerous."

Once again, unanimous nodding.

"How could Alchemy be dangerous?"

"I'll do it!" Louise exclaimed with a determined look on her face.

"Don't Louise!" Someone called out.

However, that only made her more determined. As she stepped down, so did another girl, one with her nose in a book. As Louise raised her wand, that girl exited the classroom and the rest of the class took cover behind their desks.

Shiki followed suit, remembering the debacle yesterday and this morning. And surely enough, the stone room rocked as a massive explosion rang out. The familiars went berserk and the class fell into chaos. Chevreuse could do nothing to restore order as she had been knocked out by the shockwave.

Louise was the only person still standing, calmly wiping the soot off her face with a handkerchief at ground zero.

"It looks like I messed up a little," she muttered weakly.

"A little? That wasn't a little!"

"Louise the Zero!"

"Your success rate is always Zero!"

Shiki realized what he had been wrong about. She was not called Zero because she had no spells. Rather, she only had one spell and everything else became that one spell. Zero success with spells. Louise the Zero.


	3. Chapter 3: A Little Respect

Chapter 3:

A Little Respect

A/N: updated as of 5/19/13

* * *

It was just before noon when Shiki and Louise finished changing the window panes. They had been forbidden from using magic, not that it really mattered since neither of them could really use any helpful spells. From what they heard, Mrs. Chevreuse had not given any more transmutation lessons that due to trauma.

"Aren't you going to say something?" The pink-haired girl looked as haughty as ever, though there was a hint of worry in her face.

On the way from the class, Shiki had said nothing. Apparently his silence was enough for Louise to start panicking a bit. From what he knew of alchemy from Sion, it was already a highly dangerous skill, Shiki was wondering why they would teach it to a group of pubescent teens. Did they not care about keeping the school intact?

* * *

Louise returned to the dining hall for lunch and Shiki returned to the servants area to get his own. While he was eating his, quite tasty, meal, a dark-haired girl with some opulent breasts approached him.

"May I help you?" he looked up from his meal, smiling at her.

"Are you by any chance the one who became Miss Vallière's familiar...?" It seemed she noticed the runes inscribed on Shiki's left hand.

"Yes, I am."

"It's become quite a rumor, you know, that a commoner was called by the summoning magic." The girl smiled sweetly. It was the first carefree smile Shiki had seen since he saw off Arcueid and Sion.

"Haha, I guess word spreads quite quickly, huh?" He responded, "So you're one of the workers here?"

"Yes, my name is Siesta I work as a maid."

"I'm Tohno Shiki, I work as... well, I don't really have any work to do. Really, I've been feeling bored by this idleness and it hasn't even been a day yet," Being stuck in a school with no entertainment, no part-time job, and no Arcueid was starting to seriously bore him.

"Well, in that case, would you like to help me serve the deserts?"

* * *

Shiki helped Siesta stack hundred of desserts on silver platters onto a car for transport and pushed it to the courtyard to serve the relaxing nobles. One particular blonde with a few of his friends caught his ear,.

"So, who's your lover now Guiche?" One of them asked.

Guiche removed a fake rose from his pocket and twirled it, "I hold no one woman in such special regard. After all, a rose blooms for the pleasure of many."

Shiki laughed, thinking about the sort of reaction any of the girls he knew back home would have if he tried to use that line on any of them to justify his varied relations. Unlike Guiche though, he did not do it out of self-serving desire, he just could not help himself when there was a girl in need.

"Does my statement amuse you, commoner?" Guiche caught him laughing and turned towards him, a haughty grin on his face.

"Nope, not at all," he brushed him off, not wanting to start anything he might regret.

"Oh, I recognize you, you are Louise the Zero's familiar, aren't you?" Louise the Zero, another one of his master's bullies, huh? "You assaulted and tarnished the honor of my dear friend Malicorne in class today, did you not?"

"Can't say I did," Shiki replied, matter-of-fact-ly. If he pissed off this noble brat a bit, maybe he'd be able to get Louise some self-confidence she desperately needed.

"Don't lie to me you commoner, as the son of General Gramont, and as you are not a member of the staff of this school, I am well within my right to deal out punishment as I see fit," he said this with quite a bit of flourish, obviously showing off to his friends, "But as I am a generous man, if you simple bow for me, I will consider your insult forgotten."

"Shiki... you mustn't anger the nobles. Apologize, for your own safety," a worried Siesta ran up to him.

"No thanks," the reply make Guiche's brow twitch in some anger.

"Oh? Defying me commoner? Perhaps you need to be taught a lesson," Guiche began to wave his wand and the form of one of his bronze valkyries began to rise from the earth.

But it never got all the way out.

It only took him an instant to close the gap between them, in which he slammed Guiche into the ground, face-first, but kept his wand arm twisted behind him in a very uncomfortable position and his right foot on the blonde boy's back..

"Mages don't seem so tough, now do they?" he twisted Guiche's arm. Hard. Guiche dropped the wand and cried out in pain. Shiki realized that he was being more cruel and brutal than he usually was and chalked it up to his other self influencing him more than usual due to the foreign environment.

"Weren't you going to teach me a lesson, blondie?" he mocked, though released him and back off, letting the boy get back up.

"Guiche!" A blonde girl with massive drills and a black cape ran up to the boy and looked at his arm. "How dare you do this to Guiche you... you commoner!" Tears were welling up in her eyes and Shiki groaned. He had intended on showing off a bit of his strength to strike some fear into the pampered nobles that bullied Louise but it seemed that anger sometimes took precedence over fear.

"Guiche, you dropped the perfume I gave you." she said, grasping it in her hands and giving it to him.

"Oh Montmerency, you really are the only one for me," This was turning into a cheesy love scene and Shiki was almost too embarrassed to watch, but he was glad he did.

At that very moment, a brown-haired, brown-caped girl dropped a box of cookies that spilled out onto the grass.

"Guiche, I thought that... you were... you said that..." Tears welled up in her eyes ad she began sobbing before running away.

"Katie, I-" Guiche started, before his 'friends' cut in.

"Just as I thought, you've been making moves on the first years, haven't you!?" one of them said.

The tears of sadness in Montmerency's eyes turned into tears of rage and she slapped him across the cheek, hard. She dragged him up to his feet with all of her enraged strength and threw him towards Shiki who caught the boy before he fell.

"Take him commoner, you can kill him for all I care," She told Shiki, before running off after Katie, perhaps to have a girl to girl talk with her.

"Learn your lesson yet?" Shiki asked Guiche, gripping his sore shoulder unnecessarily hard to remind him of just what he could do to him if he tried to start something again.

"This is your fault to begin with commoner," he shot back, though gave Shiki some space. Despite that angry retort, the blonde boy at least _looked_ like he was brought down a few notches. He sulked off towards the school castle, injured and newly single.

"The name's Shiki, by the way, Tohno Shiki," He called out, "Not commoner."

"Guiche de Gramont," he replied.

"Shiki!" A voice he had not heard in nearly an hour called out to him. He turned around to see a familiar pink-haired girl.

"Oh hey, Lou-" All he got was a slap across the face.

"You fought Guiche!?" she screamed at him. Tears in her eyes too. Today he made three girls cry, if Arihiko were here to see him, he would be having a riot. "What were you thinking! You could have gotten killed!"

"Oh, what is this? Is Louise worrying about the safety of her familiar?" Kirche pushed her way through the crowd that had gathered.

"Don't be ridiculous, he's my familiar, I won't have him getting destroyed by another!"

"Wasn't much of a fight," Shiki grinned at her, "Only injuries here are Guiche, his arm, and his sense of self-worth."

"Oh, you won? That makes me want you even more," Kirche licked her lips and got closer, only to be shoved away by Louise.

"Yes, it was quite amazing!" Siesta cut in, relaying the events of the skirmish with much enthusiasm, "It all happened so fast! One moment, Lord Guiche was raising a golem out of the ground and the next, Lord Guiche was sinking into the ground!"

"And you're not hurt at all?" Louise asked him, only for Shiki to shake his head, "I don't believe you, come with me, you are getting a medical checkup whether you want to or not."

"Oooh, this looks like fun, come along Tabitha, we're going to have a look too~" Kirche dragged along the blue-haired girl with glasses Shiki saw leave the classroom during the alchemy lesson and Siesta following along.

"Oh my~" Shiki was sitting at the foot of the bed, topless. Kirche seemed to be quite impressed, "Such a well-toned body, and even battle scars. Louise, you didn't summon a commoner, you summoned a warrior."

Siesta's face was red with some embarrassment from seeing Shiki's bare torso and even the quiet blue girl looked up from her book and stared for a moment.

"These scars... where did you..." Louise was at a loss for words, tracing her hand across the ring scar around his arm from when he got it chopped off by Roa, the claw and fang scars from his fight with Nrvnqsr, and ending her finger on the scar that covered nearly his entire chest.

"This one..." he pointed to the scar on his chest, "Is the one that gave me my eyes. It left me in a coma, brought me to the edge of death and let me understand, let me see what I see. The rest of these, I got from being a meddler. Because I can't help but offer everything I can to my friends."

"I see..." she said, quiet again, "I was wrong about you..."

"Sorry for making you worry," he said, smiling and patting her on the head. She looked as meek as a kitten for a moment.

"W-what do you think you are doing?" She demanded, red with embarrassment because of how she felt comfortable in that moment. "I'm your master, treat me with some more respect!" She shouted at him as she turned around and ran out. Though before she left the room, she turned back around and shouted at him one last time, "And don't forget! Just because you beat Guiche doesn't mean I'll praise you or applaud you, idiot! You are still my familiar!"


	4. Chapter 4: Arms Dealer

Chapter 4:

Bearing Arms

A/N: Updated 5/21/13 You'll soon see a real update now that everything's been revised. Expect something saturday.

* * *

Recently, Shiki had been waking up earlier. Perhaps it was because he was no longer doing night time patrols, or perhaps it was perhaps Louise was there every morning to make sure he "wasn't being attacked by that vixen, Kirche," or so she claimed.

The servants he ate with all but started worshiping him. The tale of his defeat of Guiche had escalated to the point where Guiche had somehow become a square mage and Shiki has defeated him with a single blow. The head chef even had Siesta bring out some of the finest wine in the school, jokingly trying to get Shiki to teach him his techniques.

Not that he could, Nanaya skills were mostly inherited genetically. Besides, you had to have the body type for it too.

"You're coming to town with me today," Louise said one day, out of the blue.

"Alright," Shiki followed her to the school entrance, towards a carriage. He had nothing against going outside. In fact, he really wanted to see the world outside the school, though he was still nonetheless puzzled,"But why?"

"You were a great warrior or knight from where you are, right?"

"Not really, I've only really been in a handful of fights."

"What is a knight without a sword?" She threw out a rhetorical question, ignoring his previous statement.

"Well, I've never held a sword before in my life."

"What?" Louise raised a puzzled eyebrow, "But you defeated Guiche in an instant."

"Yeah, with my bare hands," he answered.

"So you are some bare handed fighter? How barbaric."

"Well, actually, I prefer short blades, like knives," Shiki answered drawing his trusty, old, family knife, showing it to her. The runes on his left hand suddenly started glowing and his body felt significantly lighter. Louise did not seem to notice the glowing but she did notice him suddenly stop moving.

"Is something the matter?" she asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. Shiki sheathed the knife and put it away. The feeling disappeared immediately.

"No... it's... nothing..." he said, helping the petite girl into the carriage and following her in.

* * *

It took them three whole hours to reach the city and they continued the rest of the way on foot. The hustle and bustle of the city reminded Shiki of his hometown, Misaki, and he felt at peace among the crowds.

"Streets are kinda small here," he said, though they were certainly less crowded than those of Misaki.

"What do you mean? This is one of the largest streets to begin with.

"Haha, it's just that, where I'm from, the streets are much wider, this would be considered one of the narrowest streets," It was narrower than a two-way street, though there were some one-ways that were narrower.

"Are you making sure my wallet is safe in that jacket of yours?"

"Yea yea," he replied, "This thing is really heavy though, just how much gold is in here?"

"About 1000 coins, why?"

"Oh wow," no wonder it was so heavy. He was gripping onto his knife now for that strange effect he felt earlier and it helped make the heavy wallet seem all that much lighter.

On the way to their destination, Shiki pestered Louise about the signs and lettering. Foreign characters that vaguely resembled Latin text, he felt quite lost when he could not do something as basic as reading.

"So that's the blacksmith?" he asked, pointing at the sign with a sword hanging from it. The store was in a narrow alley, filled with dirt, mud, and trash.

They stepped inside and the blacksmith unenthusiastically welcomed them in, until he looked up and saw the pentagram and cloak on Louise.

"My lady! My noble lady! All of my wares here are real and reasonably priced! There's nothing criminal here!"

"I'll be your customer today."

"Oh… that's rather weird… a noble buying a sword! Quite strange."

"Why is that?"

"Well… priests wave sacred staffs, soldiers wave swords, and nobles wave wands. Isn't that the rule?"

"Oh, I'm not the one using it. My familiar is."

"Ahh… a familiar that can use a sword, huh?" The shopkeeper spoke in a lively voice, and looked at Sshiki. "I believe that would be this gentleman over there?"

Louise nodded. By this time, Shiki was already examining the swords, piece by piece, pulling them out of their sheaths and swinging them a bit, seeing which ones gave him a good feel.

Louise ignored Shiki, and continued, "I'm not very knowledgeable about swords, so please show me anything that is reasonable."

"Speaking of which, it seems that nobles like to let their servants bear swords lately. The last time any of them came to pick one from me, they picked this type," the shopkeeper pulled out a decorative, one-handed sword.

"What do you think, Shiki?"

Shiki picked it up and gave it a few swings.

"Eh... I don't like how it feels," it did not even give him that lightness effect like some of the other swords did, "Do you have something more... practical?"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know... I'm not really a swords guy, can you just pull something out that you think would suit me?"

"What about this one?" he pulled out a gilded broadsword encrusted with jewels. Shiki picked it up.

"How much?" Louise asked.

"Well… it's made by the famous Germanian alchemist Lord Shupei. It can cut through metal like butter because of the magic infused in it! See this inscription here?" The shopkeeper proudly pointed at the words on the handle. "You can't get this cheaper anywhere else. 3000 gold coins."

"That's absurd! You can buy a holiday home with a garden with that!"

"I don't like it," Shiki said, "It feels excessively heavy and impractical." Plus, it did not give him that lightweight feeling.

"Alright, just for you lovely youngins, I'll lower the price to 2500, that sound good?"

"It's not the price, it's the feeling, you know?"

"Hah, that kid knows a ripoff when he sees one!" A voice from the corner of the room piped up. Shiki and Louise looked around but they and the shopkeeper were the only ones in the room.

"Def, don't be so impolite to my customers!" The shopkeeper yelled back.

"Who- What?"

"Are your eyes there just for decoration missy?" Shiki could see the source of the voice now. In the corner of the room was a thing broadsword, comparable in size to the golden one in his hand right now. However, it was thinner and heavily rusted. It looked extremely old and extremely worn. The guard piece moved as it spoke.

"A sentient sword?"

"That's right, lady. It's a sentient, magical, intelligent sword. I wonder what kind of mage could make a sword speak… but it's got a rotten tongue, always arguing with my customers. Hey, Derf! Keep up the insolence and I'll ask this noble here to melt you!"

"Sounds good to me! I'd like to see you try it! I'm kinda tired of this world. I'd love to be melted down!"

"Fine! Then I'll melt you down!"

"Wait a sec," Shiki stopped the shopkeeper. He picked up the blade and drew it. That feeling was there and the runes on his left hand glowed softly.

"Kid, what are you doing?" the sword demanded.

"You said your name was Derf?" Shiki asked, swinging the sword once and then pulling the sheath out and sheathing it.

"Wrong! It's Derflinger-_sama_ to you!"

"I'll take him," Shiki said, he liked the sword already. The way he talked kind of reminded him of his best friend, Arihiko, "My name's Shiki by the way, Tohno Shiki."

"So you're a _user_ kid?" the sword asked. Shiki gave him a puzzled look, "So you don't even know about yer own powers huh? Well, go ahead and buy me, I'll allow it."

"Wait, Shiki, I can get you a much better, quieter sword, I have enough money," Louise interjected, obviously she did not seem to appreciate Derflinger's mouth as much as Shiki did. "This one's far too rusty and I don't think you could even just through butter with it."

"That's fine," Shiki answered, tapping his glasses, "A blade doesn't need to be sharp for me to be able to cut with it."

A look of understanding appeared on Louise's face,."Alright, how much?" she asked the blacksmith.

"Eh... 100 will do."

"Isn't that a bit-" she began.

"Overpriced?" Shiki cut in before she could finish. He was a natural born miser and haggler, he was going to pinch every penny he did not have, "How about we just take him off your hands for you, free of charge?"

"You trying to rob me kid?"

"Think about it this way, if you leave him here, you'll lose customers, if you decide to get rid of him, you'll have to go through the effort of melting him down. If you just give Derflinger to me, you won't have to bother with either situation. Right?"

"Whatever kid, do what you want. The sooner I'm rid of him, the better. If he doesn't shut up, just slam him back into his scabbard."

"Thanks mister."

"Kid," Derflinger piped up, "Is that all I am to you? Not even worth shelling out a single gold piece for?"

They spent the rest of the day picking out clothes for Shiki. His school uniform was starting to get dirty and having only that single pair was going to be inconvenient.

With some help from Derflinger, they picked out a plain, white shirt, navy blue pants, and a nice pair of leather boots. Shiki opted to keep his navy blue jacket. It was a good quality one that lasted through many of his battles and was made of material that this world simply could not match.

All in all, he did not really look all that different from what he looked before.


	5. Chapter 5: A Crumbling Wall

Chapter 5:

A Crumbling Wall

A/N: If you haven't looked at the last few chapters in a week or so, go back and read them, I rewrote everything.

* * *

"Zerbst, what is the meaning of this!" Louise glowered at Kirche, and the golden sword resting by Derflinger by the infirmary bed.

"I told you," she thrust out her chest with confidence, "I got what Shiki wanted so I can here to give it to him."

"Ah, that's a shame, I already got what my familiar a weapon. Right, Shiki?"

"Well, technically I got Derf myself," he stated, remembering how he managed to haggle his way out of paying anything for it.

"Kid, I told you the name's _Derflinger-sama_, get that right!"

"Don't be like that, your name is too hard to pronounce."

"But the one I brought you is so much more awesome, right? It's a Germanian-made gem of the highest caliber."

"To be honest..."

"You can't seriously think that rusty piece of trash is better than the sword I brought you myself!" Kirche's face formed a look of shock while Louise's formed one of mocking confidence.

"You heard him Zerbst, my familiar prefers my tastes."

"That lying shopkeeper..." Kirche bit her thumbnail in anger, remembering how she managed to snag it for a mere 1000 gold, but she had been told that Shiki wanted it...

She stormed out of the infirmary but not before turning to Shiki and winking, "You can keep that sword there as a gift, consider it the beginning of things to come."

"Get out of here already, you rotten vixen!"

* * *

Shiki, for the most part, continued to go to classes with Louise. The material was interesting enough but, as it was mostly useless to someone like he who could not cast spells, he sometimes skipped out and helped Siesta around the school. This angered Louise somewhat but she never stopped him.

Today he was in the library, looking through books. It did not do him much good though, since he could not read anything. The pictures and diagrams were well made, though.

"Oh, fancy meeting you here Mr. Familiar," Kirche wove her way around the bookshelf towards him. It was not really _fancy meeting_ as Shiki had noticed her following him a little while ago. "I never thought of you as the reading type."

"I can't actually read anything here," Shiki replied, "It doesn't resemble any alphabet I understand." It kind of looked like Latin or Cyrillic letters to him but, at the game time, they did not form any words he could recognize.

"Oh, I forgot that most commoners can't read."

"It's nothing to do with my being a commoner and everything to do with me not being from this land."

"Well, what if I taught you how to read?" She grasped his arm, pressing her breasts against it.

"Ahahaha," Shiki laughed nervously. Though, to be honest, it was probably a good choice to accept, regardless of Kirche's intentions. He felt somewhat inadequate after realizing that he did not understand any of the signs in the city.

"Just, give me a few minutes," Kirche ran out the library and came back with a few leatherbound novels.

"You didn't need to do that," Shiki reminded, "The library has plenty of books already."

"Oh? But these are better," she insisted, cracking one open, "These are members of my mother's own personal library that she allowed me to take with me here."

They spent the next half hour or so going over the letters and how they were pronounced. Reading words aloud, the sounds his voice made sounded foreign but the words, together, made complete sense to him.

Kirche handed him one of her books and Shiki started reading it aloud. It was a cheap romance novel with a prince and a commoner girl, those sorts of forbidden romances that some girls seemed to adore. It did not interest him in the slightest but he was still excited that he was getting the hang of reading.

"Shiki, what are you doing with her!" The familiar, high pitched shout of his master could be heard from the library entrance. Louise looked furious, probably because he was hanging out with her hated rival.

"Teaching your dear familiar how to read, Louise, I couldn't give him a sword he wanted so I thought I could do something else for him."

"You could have just asked me to teach you! Stupid Shiki," she pouted and faced away from him.

"Jealous words are quite unmannerly, Vallière!" Kirche proclaimed.

"Here Mr. Familiar," Kirche flipped through a book to a page she liked, "Show her how much you've learned."

"The girl's breath turned ragged as the Noble pushed harder. 'You're enjoying this, aren't you girl,' he said, 'Just sub-' What are you making me read?" Shiki closed the book and pushed it away.

"What obscene words are you making come out of my familiar's mouth!?"

"It's your fantasy, isn't it Vallière? You with for a dashing knight to push you down and just rav-"

"Shut up shut up shut up!" I really hate you Zerbst!"

"We think quite alike," Kirche stood up, an aggressive smile on her face. Watching the two of them quarrel reminded Shiki of Arcuied, Ciel, and Akiha, quite a nostalgic feeling.

"Let's duel!" The two of them shouted in unison.

"With magic, of course," Kirche added.

"Fine by me," Louise suddenly did not look as confident as she did earlier, "Time and Location?"

"Tonight, Vestri Court," Kirche decided, and Louise agreed.

"What are you grinning for? Stupid familiar!" Louise glared at the goofy face Shiki was making.

"I-it's nothing, it's just that seeing you two reminds me of home..."

Louise's face suddenly turned sad and she looked away. She muttered something under her breath, to Shiki it sounded like 'Arcueid' but it could not possibly have been. Could it?

"Now that's just tasteless," Shiki looked up at the tower. There was a straw effigy resembling him and, in fact, wearing the clothes he arrived int his world with, minus the jacket, hung up on the tower by a rope tying its 'hands' together.

"It's just symbolic," Louise said, "The first of us to free 'you' wins." 

"And if I win," Kirche leaned over to Shiki, "I get to have you~"

"And if I win," Louise cut between them, "You leave Shiki alone forever, got it!?"

"Yes yes," she took a few steps back, "I'll let you go first, my treat."

Louise said nothing as she stepped up. She took a few deep breaths and focused. Kirche would be able to easily take out the rope with a single fireball. She raised her wand and-

A loud boom shook the tower.

Kirche was rolling with laughter, "You missed Louise! Not only did your spell fail spectacularly, you didn't even hit anything!"

"But- I didn't cast anything," A panicked look appeared on her face, "That wasn't me."

Kirche stopped laughing, a look of confusion spread across her face, followed by one of fear. She screamed and ran away.

Coming from around the tower, a massive stone giant was pounding against the tower. Whatever it was doing, it was certainly nothing good. Louise immediately started running towards it.

"Louise!" Shiki shouted, catching up to her and grabbing her, lifting her feet off the ground, "What are you doing!"

"This is my chance!" She shouted at him, "If I can stop this giant I can bring honor to myself."

She wriggled her way out of his grasp and kept running at the golem. The tower was shaking but the walls were miraculously still holding. Though for how much longer, she did not know.

"Fireball!" Louise shouted, waving her want at the giant. Though, instead of having a fireball come out, an explosion tore open the tower wall and caused the golem to stagger from the shockwave. Shiki noticed a figure standing on its shoulder, clinging on as the giant regained its balance.

Shiki grabbed Louise's shoulder and pulled her behind him, "Stay here, I'll take care of this!"

The golem had an arm inside the tower and the figure walked on it, coming back out of the tower with a long, rectangular box.

Before the figure even reached the elbow, Shiki had run straight up the tower wall and was closing the distance fast. The runes on his left hand glowed as he gripped his knife. The feeling of weightlessness was no illusion at all, it seemed. Derflinger was still in the infirmary, but for Shiki, the knife would be enough.

The golem's other hand smashed into the weakened tower, opening up another hole as it tried to crush Shiki. Unfortunately for the figure, this only gave Shiki a direct pack onto the golem's shoulders.

The golem began crumbling and Shiki leaped off, into the tower so that he would not land painfully in the rubble. He hopped back to ground level, with the figure nowhere to be seen. Whoever that person was, it seemed like they had escaped, taking whatever was stolen with them.

Louise ran over to him with tears in her eyes.

"Stupid Shiki! Why did you do that!" she pounded her tiny fists against Shiki's chest as hard as she could.

"You said the golem needed to be stopped, didn't you?"

"I was going to do it. I was going to do it myself. Why did you have to!" she had started to cry now, "I could have proven to everyone that I'm not just a Zero!"

"I'm sorry," he apologized, "I just thought that-"

"Thought what? That I couldn't handle it myself!? That I am a Zero!? That I'm a worthless excuse of a noble that can't even cast something as simple as a fireball!? Someone who should just give up their title and live the rest of her life as a commoner!?" She was really sobbing now, "I'm useless... Even my own familiar..."

"I- I never thought-"

"You don't understand at all Shiki," this was starting to turn into a real mental breakdown now as she sunk to her knees, "What do you know? You're string, you're fast, you're talented. All your strengths, abilities, talents were just given to you. You never had to work hard to become strong. You never trained for real and still killed Roa. You were born with talent, a peak human body, and gained your eyes in a freak accident!"

"I've worked hard all my life. Harder than anyone else as this stupid academy. But what do I have to show for it!? A few lousy explosions and a nickname representing my incompetence. I have no friends because everyone thinks I am a failure. Even my own family doesn't think I'll ever accomplish anything. My sister says I should just give up on magic forever and just marry some rich old man."

"I'm sorry," Shiki crouched down and held her in his arms, letting her sob until the tears slowed down.

"How did you know about Roa?"he asked, when she had gained sufficient control of her emotions.

"I saw it I my dreams," she explained, "It started after I summoned you. It was just glimpses at first, but they started to get more and more vivid. I saw your city and its enourmous towers, I saw the man who killed your family, I saw the mansion you grew up in. I saw the accident that gave you your eyes."

"I saw Arcueid, Ciel, Akiha, your precious friends and family. And I saw Roa. I saw him kill Arcuied and I saw how you felt for her. I was Jealous of you," she laughed a bit, "You had everything I strived for. People that loved you, strength to take down monsters, and the respect of those around you."

"Looks like you saw most of it..." Shiki mused, stroking her hair, "But not all of it."

Some of the teachers were just starting to appear now, much too late. Shiki did not know what that person stole but the teachers were bound to be asking them questions soon.

"You really want to be strong?" Shiki asked his master. She nodded.

"Alright then, maybe I can help you out."

A/N: Three years later, I churn out some more crap. Started this thing back in high school and now I'm in college, arguably with significantly more free time than I had back then. Now watch as I don't update again for another three years.

On an unrelated note, how are you all doing? I've been reading light novels recently. Heavy Object is really good, I recommend you check it out. It's by the same author as Toaru no Raildex and is much heavier on the scifi stuff. TBH, I like it more than Toaru. Also reading Seirei Tsukai no Blade dance. Enjoyable enough, kind of a generic harem romcom but the storyline is entertaining enough to stick with me so why not?


	6. Chapter 6: Dirt and Destruction

Chapter 6:

Dirt and Destruction

* * *

"What is this?" Louise asked as Shiki stuck a long wooden stick into the ground about five meters away from her. There were another half dozen sticks in a pile by Louise. They were in Vestri Court, the destroyed tower could be seen behind them, plus not many people wandered over here.

"Training," Shiki states simply.

"I've trained plenty with magic, but I still can't cast even the simplest of spells," Louise bit her lower lip, "If you think doing more of the same is worth making me skip classes for then I can tell you right now that you're wasting your time."

"Classes don't seem to have helped you much either," Shiki retorted, "Besides, I'm not teaching you how to cast spells, how would I be able to do that when I'm not a magus myself? Nah, one of my personal philosophies is dealing with what you have."

"Stand right there and destroy that stick with your explosions," Shiki explained, "If you miss, run a lap around the school."

"An entire lap!?" Being a noble, Louise had never had to do much of physical labor. The school was about a kilometer in circumference and the prospect of having to run that distance every time she missed worried her a bit, "Why do I have to run a lap? I thought you were going to help me get stronger."

"Well, how do you think I was going to get you stronger?"

"I thought you were going to teach me thinks like how to move like you do, things like what helped you beat Guiche."

"Well, those things require quite a bit of physical ability, and I don't think you have much of that. Your aim with spells also sucks. That explosion you cast missed a target as large as that golem, you need to work on that too. It's not a moving target but we're starting small now."

Truth was, Shiki did not really know if this was going to work, or if he could even teach Louise Nanaya techniques. The skills he had were mostly genetic memory with muscle memory from repeated practice. Shiki himself did not even know much apart from the basics until he had Tokie Jinan fill in the rest of his training for him.

"There you two are!" Professor Colbert appeared in the courtyard with them, "I've been looking all over for you, you need to come with me to see the headmaster."

"Guess we'll have to start training some other time," Shiki sighed as he followed Colbert.

* * *

The two of them entered the Headmaster's office, Kirche and Tabitha were there too.

"Why are we here?" Louise asked Colbert.

"As witnesses to the event, your presence was requested," the headmaster answered.

"Where was Tabitha during all of that?"

"Pursuing," the quiet, blue-haired girl gave a short, concise answer.

"Anyways, if you would so kindly recount the events of last night," the headmaster asked.

They did so and finished just as Ms. Longueville burst into the room, her green hair somewhat dishiveled.

"Ms. Longueville! Where have you been?" One of the professors demanded.

"I'm sorry, I've been doing some investigations," she replied.

"Investigations?"

"Yes, I have determined the location of Fouquet of the Crumbling Dirt.

"What?" Professor Colbert shouted, "How?"

"According to the commoners around the area, they saw what seemed to be like a person wearing a black hooded cloak entering an abandoned house in the nearby forest. I think that the person is most probably Fouquet and that abandoned house is most probably his hideout."

"A black hooded cloak? Unmistakable, that must be Fouquet!" shouted Shiki's pink-haired master.

"How far from here?"

"Half a day by foot, four hours by horse."

"We must report this to the Imperial Court right away! We must seek reinforcements from the imperial army!"

"You fool! By the time we report this to the imperial court, Fouquet would have gotten away Scott free! Besides, if we can't even handle such a small problem on our own, we're not fit to be called nobles! Since the staff was stolen from the academy, then it's the academy's responsibility to get back the staff ourselves!" Retorted the headmaster. Ms. Loungeville smiled, as though she was expecting this answer the whole time.

Old Osman coughed for a while, and then started recruiting volunteers. "Now, we're going to organize a search team to find Fouquet. Those willing to join, please rise up your wands."

All of the nobles looked at each other awkwardly, not one raised a wand.

"No one? That's peculiar. No one wants to be known as the hero who caught Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt?"

"I will," Louise raised her wand.

"Miss Vallière!" Mrs. Chevreuse exclaimed, obviously against her decision, "You musn't do such a thing, you're a student, leave this to the teachers."

"But none of you are willing to do anything..." she muttered to herself.

Shiki frowned and placed a hand on her shoulder, stepping forwards.

"As Louise's familiar, I will guarantee both her safety and the recovery of what has been taken from you. As none of you seem to be willing to step forwards, and as I came closest to catching Fouquet last time, I think it is best to let us chase after Fouquet."

Kirche raised her wand as well, followed by Tabitha with her staff.

"Very well then, I'll leave it to you three," Headmaster Osmond decided. Shiki's eyebrow twitched in irritation as it seemed as though he were left out of the count.

"But they're just students! You can't let them do this!"

"I simply cannot let myself lose to Vallière! It would tarnish my good family name," Kirche stated confidently. Shiki wondered just how reliable that would be though, considering how she ran away earlier.

"And Miss Tabitha here has already been granted the title of Chevalier? Am I not correct?" Osmond asked.

"What? Really?" Louise and many of the professors looked shocked. Tabitha gave a curt nod in response.

"Hey, what's a Chevalier?" Shiki asked.

"Chevalier is the lowest title that the imperial family can grant a person," Louise explained, "Unlike Baron or Marquis, it's a title that cannot be bought with land, but must be earned through rendering a great service to a country."

"I see..."

"Miss Zerbst from Germania comes from a family of distinguished war heroes, and she herself has a very strong background in fire magic," Old Osmond continued, "And Miss Vallière, she..."

It seemed as though he was having trouble coming up with a compliment for Louise.

"She's the master of the legendary Gand-" Colbert began to say before Osmond shut him up.

"Ahaha, those fumes in that lab of yours must be going to your head! Quit talking nonsense."

Therefore Old Osman turned to the group of four and said, "The academy awaits the capture of Fouquet then!"

Louise, Kirche and Tabitha stood to attention and said, "We swear upon our wands to capture Fouquet!"

"Well then, ready the carriage and set off right away. You must conserve your energy before you reach your destination," Miss Longueville ordered.

"Miss Longueville, could you go with them, too?"

"Yes, Headmaster Old Osman. I had wanted to go with them as well," said Miss Longueville.

* * *

It really was not much of a carriage, just a wooden cart being pulled along by a horse. Not that Shiki minded, it certainly was no car but it sure beat walking for half a day.

He was half-asleep at the back corner, one knee by his shoulder, holding up Derflinger. He did not pay any attention to the conversation the girls were having. Something about pasts and nobles becoming mercenaries.

He awoke to a pair of breasts pressed against his arm and his master shouting damnations at said breasts.

"Are we here already?" Shiki asked, slipping out of Kirche's grip with her barely even noticing. They were in a small clearing now, surrounded by forest. It was roughly the size of Vestri Court and it had a cabin off to the side.

"Fouquet doesn't appear to be here," Miss Longueville observed, "I'll take a look around the forest, the rest of you should check the cabin."

"No traps," Tabitha scanned the cabin with her magic as they approached it. Shiki nodded and cracked open the door, checking inside. He drew his knife, letting the runes on his hand glow, just in case.

A dusty table and chair with an empty bottle of wine sitting on it.

"Nobody inside," he announced, raising a hand and making an 'x' on his forehead to indicate that the building was clear, "Doesn't look like anyone's been here for a while either."

Tabitha stepped in after him and looked around a bit. Some of the ground was not as dusty as the rest and she found the long box Shiki saw yesterday hidden underneath a floor panel.

"The Staff of Destruction," she announced.

"Isn't this a little too easy?" Kiche asked. Shiki thought so too but perhaps Fouquet simply had not expected anyone to find her so soon.

"You know, Fouquet had green hair..." Shiki wondered if that was a common hair color in this world.

Tabitha opened the box and Shiki's jaw dropped.

"T-thats-!"

"Aiiieeee!" A chilling shriek could be heard from Louise. The roof of the cabin was torn off and the figure of the giant earth golem from yesterday could be seen. However, Fouquet was not seen on its shoulder this time.

Shiki was the first to react, dashing of the cabin right before Tabitha staggered it for just a moment with a hammer of wind.

"Too heavy," she said hopping onto her dragon, Sylphid's back who just swooped in, picking up Kirche.

"This is your chance Louise!" Shiki shouted, cheering her on, "Hit that thing with an explosion!"

"A-alright!" She stammered out a half-assed incantation. She focused on the golem's torso, makign sure her aim was as good as she could get it. The shoulder of the golem promptly exploded, causing it to lose and arm and nearly topple from its displaced center of mass.

"Nice work!" though perhaps it was too early to say that as the golem began regenerating its arm once more.

Louise tried casting another explosion. The air behind the golem erupted and caused it to topple towards Louise.

Before she could be crushed, Shiki had already swept her away, tossing her gently towards the other girls.

"Wait, Shiki! We still need to capture Fouquet!" she reminded him. The recovery of the staff was not their only mission.

"I'll see if I can take care of the golem!" Shiki removed his glasses and drew Derflinger.

"Finally using me, eh partner?" the talking sword finally spoke, "Hey wait, what are you doing?"

Shiki was holding the two handed broadsword in reverse grip with one hand, his knife in the other.

"I don't know why but I feel like this is the best way to hold you!" he shouted as he nimbly dodged a crushing stone fist.

With Derflinger, he cleaved through the line of death on the fist, severing it, and then followed up with his knife, stabbing the point of death and watching as the rest of the arm crumbled.

The arm began collecting more stone and rebuilding, his mystic eyes were not going to be able to permanently stop the golem unless he stabbed the point on its torso.

Shiki vanished from sight, dashing towards that point, but a stone arm blocked his way. He chopped it to pieces as the second arm came swinging his way. He absorbed the impact with his knees and was catapulted across the clearing. It did not seem like the golem was going to let him kill it very easily.

"Why won't you work!" came a voice behind the golem. Louise was floating down slowly, waving the staff of destruction wildly. Shiki almost laughed at how ridiculous it looked but now was not the time. He appeared by Louise's side in an instant, sheathed Derflinger, and took the staff from her.

"Are you crazy? Waving around this thing that you obviously have no idea how to use?"

"You told me to deal with what I have and I had the staff of destruction!" she shouted at him in protest.

"Deal with what you have, right! But don't forget-!"

The runes on his hands glowed as he swiftly set up the 'staff of destruction'.

"-You have me!"

Shiki shouldered what was really a rocket launcher and aimed it center mass of the golem.

"Backblast clear!" he shouted, firing the rocket. It left a trail of flame and smoke as it collided with its target, reducing it to a mound of rubble.

Shiki put his glasses back on as it did not seem like the golem was getting up again.

"Excellent work!" Miss Longueville stepped out of the forest as Kirche and Tabitha landed by Shiki and Louise, "You took down Fouquet's golem magnificently, may I see that?"

Shiki handed her the 'staff of destruction'.

"So that was how you used it," Miss Longueville suddenly pointed it straight at the group, backing off a few steps, "Don't move, drop your-."

Shiki knocked her out in an instant and pried the rocket launcher out of her unconscious hands.

"Shiki?" Louise asked, not quite sure what just happened.

"Mission accomplished, we've got the staff and Fouquet, let's go back."

* * *

The three girls were praised and applauded when they returned. It seemed that Louise and Kirche had been recommended to receive the title of Chevalier and Tabitha, already having the title, was recommended for the Elven Medallion. The Ball of Frigg was to continue tonight as the staff had been recovered.

Shiki, being a commoner, got nothing of the sort. Louise argued against his mistreatment but it was not like Shiki got nothing at all.

Instead, he got something that he was hoping was far more valuable, a lead to how he was getting home.

"A weapon from your world, you say?" Old Osmond asked, after everyone other than Shiki, Colbert, and himself let the room.

"Yes, as difficult as it may be to believe, I come from a different world. This weapon was from mine as well. It's a pretty common type of rocket launcher," though the RPG-7 was orders of magnitude more common and popular.

"How did you come across this weapon?" Shiki asked.

Osmond recounted the events of thirty years ago, about the man in strange clothes that had died saving him and how he possessed two of these staves of destruction.

"So he's dead."

"Yes, unfortunately."

"Just when I thought I found another way home."

Osman held Shiki's left hand, "On another note, The runes on your hand…"

"Oh yea, I wanted to know about that too. It seems like I can use any weapon proficiently when they glow, they also seem to raise my physical ability quite a bit."

Osman pondered for a moment and said, "They are the runes of "Gandálfr", the legendary familiar."

"The runes of the legendary familiar?"

"Yes. Gandálfr was a legendary familiar who could use any weapon at will. That is most likely the reason that you could use the Staff of Destruction."

"Why me?"

"I don't know." Osman quickly replied, "I'm sorry. But there is a possibility that the runes of Gandálfr are related to you being transported to this world."

"I see..." Shiki let out a sigh, a clue to how to get home disappearing just like that.

"Well, why don't you take your mind off things? Maybe go to the ball tonight?" Headmaster Osmond recommended, "Maybe you'll even find a girl you love, settle down, and marry her!"

"Haha," Shiki laughed, "If I did that, I might be headed home sooner than I think, in a casket."

He was almost certain that those girls from back home would leap through space-time to tear him apart if he ever got married to a strange girl in a strange land.

* * *

A/N: Three years for the next update? Not even three days! I should have been doing homework but I love to regret everything I do so I did this instead!

Shiki still hasn't been in a real fight yet. Probably not going to happen until Wardes shows up. Also, with his knife and Derflinger, he fights sort of like Linne from Under Night In-Birth. Look it up, it's by French Bread, aka the guys who made Melty Blood.


	7. Chapter 7: Stormy Day

Chapter 7:

Stormy Day

* * *

Shiki was drinking, a lot. He could hold his alcohol quite well and was still holding on to his sobriety, much unlike his drinking partner.

Guiche was sitting with him at the same table, dressed in his finest clothes. He was drowning his sorrows away with alcohol as Montmorency refused to dance with him.

"This is all yerr fault, ya know?" he told Shiki, speech slurring. Feeling somewhat responsible, though not regretting his decision to publicly shame the blonde, Shiki drank with him.

"I did it for your own good," Shiki replied, "It's better it came crashing down now before it escalated to the point where you might even die." He spoke from experience and Guiche instinctively felt that Shiki knew what he was talking about.

It was around that time now, the guards at the door announced the arrival of Kirche. The redhead made eye contact with Shiki who raised a glass to her before drinking. She tried to wade her way over to him but was swamped by her lovers. He did the same for Tabitha who followed her. Some of the males tried to dance with her too but she ignored them and sat in the corner, reading her book. Kirche probably pressured her into coming, though that did not mean she was going to participate in the festivities.

"The daughter of Duke of La Vallière, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière arrives!" Finally, that pink haired girl appeared. A high ponytail and gown reminded Shiki that she was not just a schoolgirl, but a true, blue, member of nobility.

She ignored the invitations from the other boys, perhaps remembering how they had harassed and made fun of her as Louise the Zero, and instead made a beeline for Shiki.

A low whistle came from Derflinger, "Clothes really do make the man, huh? Or should I say woman?"

"Your face is red," she commented.

"People from the far east, like myself, get red-faced when they drink alcohol."

"You're drunk," she frowned, the shame of the familiar would be the shame of the master.

"Not nearly as much as him," Shiki replied, pointing at Guiche was was moping with a bottle of fine wine.

"Partner here can really hold his alcohol," Derflinger gave his support to Shiki, "Even now, he could probably outdrink you."

Louise sighed, smiling at Shiki.

"Then I suppose you're sober enough to accept a dance from a lady," she made a curtsy, holding the ends of her dress.

Surprisingly having enough tact to realize what to do for once, Shiki stood up and accepted. He did not really know how to dance, though by following Louise's lead, he managed to not embarrass them.

"I tried to see that you got an award," Louise explained.

"I don't need one."

"But-"

"What good does having a title do?"

"You'll be a noble, you'll be able to own land, have privileges most commoners could only dream of, you-"

"Louise, I can't stay here forever."

"I know..."

"But until you no longer need me to stay by your side, I will help you." his weak spot, was it not? His inability to leave a girl in trouble alone, his compulsion to help out someone in need. A habit of his that had, on numerous occasions, left him within an inch of his life.

Louise did not say anything for a while, or even look up to make eye contact with Shiki. Finally, she spoke up.

"Tonight, you don't have to sleep in the infirmary."

"Eh?"

"You can sleep with me."

* * *

The next day, a strangely-dressed Professor Colbert announced that classes for the rest of the day had been canceled, much to the glee of the student body. The students and Shiki made their way to the front of the school to greet their visitor.

A carriage rolled in and a demure looking young woman waved at the crowd of students who fervently cheered her on. Had she been Japanese, she would have fit perfectly into the yamato nadeshiko archetype.

"Who's that?"

Louise sighed, remembering that Shiki knew next to nothing about Halkegenia, and explained, "That's Princess Henrietta-" She suddenly went quiet and blushed.

Shiki looked at where she was looking and saw a handsome looking man with a feathered hat. He gave him the impression of what a French Musketeer from a cheap paperback romance would look like.

"Someone you know?" He asked. Louise merely nodded without explaining anything so Shiki decided not to push the matter.

* * *

As classes had been canceled, Shiki spent the rest of the day training Louise again.

He tossed her a canteen of water and she chugged it down, having finished her 7th lap around the school. There were a few shattered tree branches from the results of their practices and Louise was getting the hang of aiming. Instead of wildly flailing her wand around, she was taking precise aim. Her accuracy could still use work but, as they say, practice makes perfect.

"You're getting the hang of this."

"Does that mean I can stop running?"

"Hahahaha no."

Meanwhile, two hooded figures approached them. There was nobody else in the area. Kirche and Tabitha had been watching earlier until Kirche got bored and left with her silent friend.

"May I help you?" Shiki asked.

"Oh dear Louise, what are you doing?" A female voice came from under the first hood. She pulled it back, revealing herself as Princess Henrietta, "Are you practicing for the next time we scuffle?"

"Y-your highness!" Louise staggered up onto a kneeling position.

"Stop that, please stop acting so formally! You and I are friends! We are friends, are we not?! Neither the Cardinal, my Mother, or those greedy court aristocrats who buzz around wearing friendly faces are here! Oh, don't I have any friends who will open up to me? If even Louise Françoise, my old friend whom I've missed dearly, acts so distant, I would just die!"

"P-princess..." she stuttered, standing back up.

"When we were little children, didn't we get together and chase butterflies at the palace courtyard? And got all muddy?"

"...Yes, and La Porte-sama the chamberlain told us off for getting our clothes so dirty."

"Yes! That's right, Louise! We were arguing over those puffy cream cakes, and ended up having a real scuffle! Oh, whenever we fought, it was me who always lost. You would grab my hair, and I'd just start crying."

"Not at all, Princess achieved victory on at least one occasion."

"And seeing you run around, I do not believe that I would be able to do so again"

"So you two are childhood friends, huh?" Shiki asked, "But who's he?"

'He' pulled off his hood, revealing himself as the handsome man from before, "I am the Captain of the Griffin Knights, Viscount Wardes. Louise's fiancee."

As he introduced himself to Shiki, he got on one knee and kissed Louise's hand. So that is why she said she knew him...

"S-stop it Sir Wardes, I'm all sweaty..."

"A noble lady like yourself should not be out here doing physical exercise."

"This- this is something I chose for myself. I wanted to get stronger..."

"Your strength will come eventually, until then you can rely on me."

"Hey," Shiki butted in, "If she wants to get stronger herself, then let her get stronger on her own." The man had seemed pleasant enough at first but now he was starting to get on Shiki's nerves.

"And who are you to Louise?" Wardes demanded.

"I am her familiar," Shiki put it simply, "Tohno Shiki."

"So that's how it is..." Wardes eyed him. It was not a suspicious look, it was more like he was examining him.

"So then, familiar, I hear you were the one who captured Fouquet."

"What of it?"

"I wish to see just how strong the commoner who took out a triangle mage really is."

"You want to duel me?" Henrietta and Louise looked shocked.

"W-wait!" Louise got in between the two men, "You're not allowed to duel at school."

"As neither of us are students at this school, those rules do not apply to us," Wardes exclaimed, "Do you have a preferred time and place, familiar?"

"Here and now is fine," Shiki drew Derflinger, "And my name is Shiki, not familiar."

"Oi oi partner," Derflinger said, "You sure you can beat him?"

"If I only fought battles I knew I could win, I would have never fought any battles."

"That's the spirit," Wardes smiled at Shiki, who returned the gesture. As the sun was still up, a small crowd was staring to gather. Bets were already starting to be made.

"Dear princess, if you will be our witness for today."

"Shiki, please don't kill him," Louise pleaded.

"Kill me?" Wardes laughed, "I'm not so weak as to be killed like this. But for you to be worried about me rather than your own familiar, he must be really strong after all!"

"I'm not a murderer anyways." Shiki replied, putting Derflinger into reverse grip and drawing his knife as well.

Wardes drew his rapier-wand as well and Henrietta nervously announced, "V-very well then, let the duel begin!"

Shiki vanished from Wardes' line of sight. Louise noticed Wardes' eyes widen with surprise but he quickly hopped to the side, narrowly avoiding the back of Derflinger.

"You've got good instincts," Shiki commented. Wardes had not been able to keep track of him yet he still managed to dodge. Shiki had hoped to settle it with the first strike like he did with Guiche and Fouquet but it did not look like he was going to be able to.

"And your speed is-" Wardes blocked a strike with his wand, and was shoved back a foot. It did not seem like Shiki was about to give him any time to toss around witty banter.

Wardes cast some wind spells to improve his speed and was barely able to keep up with the Gandalfr-boosted Nanaya. Shiki was almost too fast for him, he simply did not have the time to cast his more powerful spells.

Instead of outright trying to block Shiki's next blow, Wardes jumped back as well, making as much space between them as he could. Just as Shiki covered most of the twenty or so meters between them, Wardes, struck him head on with a triangle level wind hammer.

Shiki tried blocking it with Derflinger which mysteriously softened the blow somewhat, letting him land on the head of the fountain.

He leaped away, just in time to dodge another wind hammer that smashed a hole into the fountain, spraying water everywhere as Wardes prepared to cast a square level wind spell.

Louise recognized it as one of her mother's favorites. A raging tornado that caused most of the crowd to flee from the scene.

"Careful partner," Derflinger spoke up, "The layer of the vacuum narrows around that tornado and will cut deeply if touched. Frightening square spellcraft…"

Shiki did not even hesitate to dive past it. He did not quite make it as it tore up his right arm but he was still able to close the gap between Wardes and himself. Dodging a point blank line wind spell, he slammed Derflinger's pommel into Wardes' stomach, trying to take him out the same way he took out Fouquet.

Unfortunately, Wardes was still conscious and tried casting another point blank spell. Shiki shoved himself in closer, lifting Wardes up and tossing him right at the tornado.

He released the spell he had on the tornado in order to avoid being chopped to bits and used levitation to prevent himself from crashing into the ground. Shiki seized that moment to grab Wardes' in midair and held his knife to his throat.

"Do I win?"

Wardes sighed as he floated to the ground, tossing his wand aside in a gesture of surrender, "It seems your strength is more than what the rumors said, Mr. Familiar."

"Yahoo!" Guiche could be heard cheering in the background, "You're the best Shiki!" He was collecting money from all the students that were returning to the courtyard. Guiche had apparently been the only one who bet on Shiki. Nobody else seemed to expect a mere commoner to defeat the captain of the Griffin knights.

"Shiki!" Louise ran up to him, "You're hurt."

"It's just a graze," he said. It looked like a lot of blood, and it was, but the cuts were shallow and the bleeding was already slowing down dramatically. If that tornado had hit him full-on though...

"We need to get you treated!" Siesta had appeared quite literally out of nowhere and, with Louise, dragged him to the infirmary.

* * *

"I'm amazed that you beat him though," Siesta exclaimed, "I thought you were a goner for sure when that tornado appeared!" The nurse was away so Louise was the one applying potion to his cuts as Siesta bandaged his arm.

"He was holding back," Shiki stated, "He gave up too easily. If he knew how fast I was from the beginning, I probably would have been chopped into pieces."

"You give me too much credit, Mr. Familiar," Wardes and the Princess stepped into the infirmary, "I went all out near the end, after all. If we fought again, it would definitely be closer but I still would not be certain of my own victory."

"Miss maid, I ask you to please leave us for now," the princess asked and Siesta tottered out of the infirmary.

"There is something I must discuss with you, Louise Françoise and Mr. Familiar..."

* * *

A/N: You all know what's coming next, but I needed a place to end. Anyways, there are probably typos everywhere, thirteen points to anyone who finds one. What are these points for? Hell if I know. Rate and review as always. I'm not sure why everyone says rate and review. I've never actually seen a rating system on , might be a good idea though so you can sort through the shitty fanfics like this one and find the better ones.


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